ISIS appears to have claimed responsibility for the mall attack, according to a statement published by the terror group online, said Laith Alkhouri, with Flashpoint Intelligence, a global security firm and NBC News consultant. Last week, three Sunni mosques in Iraq were bombed and partially destroyed in suspected retaliation for the execution of a Shia leader in Saudi Arabia. More than 22,000 Iraqi civilians, including police, were killed across the country in 2015, the United Nations office said.
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Muqdadiyah, the Diyala area from which the journalists were returning, was hit by deadly bombings and other unrest the night before.
The spokesman for Baghdad Operations Command, Saad Maan, claimed the attack was over and the security forces “in full control of the situation” but other security sources insisted the standoff was ongoing.
The attacks come as the Iraqi army aided by a U.S. led western coalition sees success in Iraq, beating back the militants from Ramadi last month, with all eyes now trained on Mosul where the Iraqi government is mounting a fight.
Shia militia groups, some of which have been repeatedly accused of serious abuses, wield huge influence in the eastern province of Diyala.
All six assailants were left dead by the end of the standoff, police said.
Reuters could not verify these accounts. However, Iraq’s security forces in the past have accused the Daesh terrorist group of carrying out similar attacks.
Three other bombings also happened in or around the Iraqi capital on Monday evening, killing 25 to 30 others. “They completely control the mall right now, they have men on the roof”, the official said. The vehicle bomb blast went off in the predominately Shi’ite district of Baghdad Jadida, according to police and medical sources.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.
The suicide bombers opened fire as they ran into the mall, however security guards shot one of them, discharging the bomb which then blew him up.
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Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi toured the site on Tuesday, calling the assault a “desperate attempt” by the militants to retaliate after the loss of Ramadi and saying Iraq would “spare no efforts” in expelling them from the country.
